58 Trees with Simple Leaves. [A ir 



Leaf, two to three inches long ; dark green and smooth 

 above ; beneath, dull, and with the ribs somewhct 

 hairy, especially in their angles. 



Bark of trunk very tough and durable ; thick ; snow- 

 white on the outside ; easily removed from the wood, 

 and then itself very separable into paper-like sheets. 

 The inner sheets are of a reddish tinge. 



Found, in the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, New 

 England, and far northward, farther than any other 

 non-evergreen tree of America, excepting the aspen. 



A tree, forty to seventy feet high. The wood is light, 

 hard, and very close-grained, but decays rapidly when 

 exposed more rapidly than the bark, which often 

 remains as a shell long after the wood within has 

 disappeared. It is very largely used in making spools, 

 pegs, shoe-lasts, in turnery, for wood-pulp, and for fuel. 

 The waterproof bark is much used by Indians and 

 trappers for their canoes. 



" Give me of your bark, O Birch-Tree ! 

 Of your yellow bark, O Birch-Tree ! 

 Growing by the rushing river, 

 Tall and stately in the valley ! 

 I a light canoe will build me, 

 That shall float upon the river, 

 Like a yellow leaf in autumn, 

 Like a yellow water-lily. 



' Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-Tree ! 

 Lay aside your white-skin wrapper, 

 For the summer time is coming, 

 And the sun is warm in heaven, 

 And you need no white-skin wrapper ! ' " 



Hiawatha. 



